Just a shooter's life...

dimanche 19 juillet 2015

June and July were busy to an unusual point, and I had quite interesting and different jobs, and I wanted to share, so here are a few pics and links to my website if you want to see more.

First, I've been on a MTB trip to Lanzarote, Canary Island, with riders Bryan Regnier and Morgane Such. We did not really know what to expect, but we ended with absolutely crazy pics. I can only show you one, the cover of BigBike Magazine, the rest in a full article probably in October. We had so much fun shooting bike and surfing as well ! Perfect place.

Then I started a pro shooting marathon, beginning with a nice photoshoot for a waterproof bags company called Zulupack. The kind of shoot where everything is tightly scheduled and everything works ! Rarely happens but it did. And so much fun using my waterproof camera to get different angles.

Second one was a beautiful shoot for Eider clothing company in a fantastic place in South of France. We have the luxury to choose only beautiful lights for shooting, which means waking up very early and finishing late in summer, but it was worth it. Thanks to Eider and their art directors to keep on in that direction.

Last of the big assignment was for a swimming pool company. Their ambassador is a very famous french swimmer, multiple olympic medalist, Laure Manaudou. We had to document what would be a nice day at the pool, and I think we made it. I especially like the underwater shots, not a lot of them but very strong. Laure is a real torpedo, and even if I shoot regularly top of the world athletes, I was quite impressed.

And you know what ? I even found the time to shoot a friend 's wedding ! Not my kind of jobs, got very nervous, but still quite happy with the results ! Hopefully, or I would have got killed by the family !

lundi 10 novembre 2014

Have you ever had this dream, when you're a student and you have to change for a new school, and you are just the new guy (or girl) around, and everything seems so new, strange, and you feel the perfect clumsy person for a few weeks before you get into your shoes ?

Well, that happened to me on that assignment, except I was the new guy for every classroom I visited !

For the Chambre de Commerce of Haute Savoie, I had to document all the classes and degrees you can get there, as it's not widely known you can get very good teachings there, part-time in a classroom and part-time in companies and industries of the area. The goal was to be fully immersed with the students, no posing, and try to make it look good.

I went to my routine technique, fully opened lenses, back lit, and be as unnoticeable as possible. Nature helped me on that one, as my size is frankly ridiculous, and I can hide everywhere. Thanks also to my camera, which can shoot in a whispering mode, making it perfect for this kind of shoot.

dimanche 21 septembre 2014

2 months ago I had to shoot for an elevator company, about their products, people building and installing them, and I also had to shoot a set of portraits of the company's board.

Needless to say the shoot was far away from home, and I had a few minutes with every people at the best. And I also had to travel light... That makes a lot of limitations, to get some nice pictures.

My technique was to imitate the painter's atelier lighting, so I investigated the whole building for a large window opened to the north, to use it as a giant softbox. The one I found had a perfect white wall to its left I could use as a background and reflector as well.

Check the result, I'm really impressed myself, no flash lights were involved in the process, and my handsome models turned very cooperative (for a few seconds...). I almost bought the window and the wall to bring back home !

lundi 4 août 2014

Hey ! It's been a while ! I've been quite busy on corporate jobs, editing a new website, and lately, I was invited to shoot the Redbull K3. Ok I said, it's gonna change me from my industrial jobs, let's take that as holidays.

What a mistake...

Imagine a trail running race, where runners start at 500m of elevation and run like mad rabbit to reach the nearest summit at 3500m ! That's 3000m of ascent, the race itself being 10 kilometers long. Steeper and you call it climbing !

As you may know it, this summer looks like winter in Norway, and we were granted with rain, snow at the top, sun sometimes, clouds... That's why I decided to process this gallery in black and white, giving more drama to the pics, not that they really need it.

As for the location, Susa, in Italy, close to Torino. Wonderful place, and thanks to Redbull Italy, Damiano and Matteo at Story Teller lab for inviting me.

jeudi 29 mai 2014

I had an assignment which is quite unusual for me, as I had to shoot the behind the scene of a kids clothing photoshoot. Usually, I'm the one that get filmed. But it's a new client, I already worked with their art director for a video, and she wanted to get the same mood in this backstage edit.

And I enjoyed it because I learned a lot. The photographer I had to follow, Stephane Huard, is an incredible character, shooting major campaigns around the world. His grandfather was a photographer, so are both his parents, they have a beautiful photo studio in Paris, it's a dynasty of photographers ! Watching him shoot and direct those talented young models taught me a lot, and also confirmed my technique is not so far. I only wish I could have the same assistant, Laurent, preparing the cameras, unloading cards, telling Stephane just what is necessary at the right moment. A nice pair working symbiotically.

On the sets, I needed to be fast and ready at any moment, so I had a very light rig to shoot all this, and a limited amount of lenses, so I could focus on shooting and not on technique. Shooting with DSLRs, you have to know your limitations and turn them into advantages. There was also a lot of different kind of lights, and I was really happy with the Cinestyle picture style, which helped me keeping all those high and low lights in control.

You can shoot RAW video now with hack firmware like Magic Lantern, but the workflow is quite a nightmare, especially if you want to shoot a little slow mo with a Canon 5DMkIII. The last version of Magic Bullet Looks integrates all the curves to correct Cinestyle, so it's easy to bring back the contrast and colors in those really flat rushes. And looking at the result, I'm really happy with it. If only Canon could officially unlock a few options on its cameras, it would be all I need as a video shooter. Hope you like the result as much as my clients do.

jeudi 20 mars 2014

I mean recreative work. Time to try, make mistakes, shoot wide open or totally locked, absurd framing. Time for some experiment. If you don't try on these occasions, you're not going to do it on a paid job... Well, I did it many times, just don't repeat it.

Exactly what I tried to do here with that video/slideshow, wandering around the beautiful city of London with only one lens, a 50mm, most of the time wide opened to add some softness and blur. And the beauty of carrying almost nothing except one camera and one lens. No heavy tripod, just use large aperture and high ISO.

Modern cameras can shoot stunning videos too, and even the most humble scene can be fascinating when shot at a large aperture and little slo-mo. Hand held long exposures are fun too, just try not to breathe for a few moments !

dimanche 16 février 2014

Less than a month after the teaser for their marketing operation with the most beautiful real estate commercial boys of Marseille, mymarseille.com comes back with a wonderful party they organized on Valentine's day.

All glam, beautiful people having fun in an intimately lit place, with fine food, beverages, cool music and a crazy singer, all this shot natural light. I can't thank enough my wonderful lenses I used wide open, to catch even the smallest quantity of photons available from any candles, bulbs or phones I could frame.

All things in perspective, the lighting of the place reminded me of some Kubrick's movies, from Barry Lindon (for which Lord Kubrick used an incredible 50mm opening at 0,7 built by Carl Zeiss) to Eyes Wide Shut... I even had people with masks, after all ! So I decided I could go the same way and not use any other source of lighting, as I had the glass to match this darkness.

As they plan some other venues, expect to see more of this technique on my videos for them this year.